Practice No. 3: No casualties from first day in pads; Kaepernick finishes hot; Brock excels

For their first full practice in pads, hitting was surprisingly minimal. But there wasn’t a shortage of impressive plays, especially during a lengthy 11-on-11 period.

Colin Kaepernick, after starting out practice off target, completed all seven of his passes in the 11-on-11 drills, including a 20-yard bullet to Anquan Boldin within the triple coverage of Chris Borland, Nick Moody and C.J. Spillman.

One of Kaepernick’s earlier incompletions in a 7-on-7 (6-on-8 actually) drill was an overthrown pass in the red zone toward Michael Crabtree by the right pylon. Kaepernick to Crabtree on the right side of the end zone? Sounds eerily familiar. On the previous play, Kaepernick gunned a 20-yard completion to Quinton Patton in the end zone.

Kaepernick seemed in good spirits as he sprinted to the locker room after practice. His accuracy is something I’ve been paying close attention to, and offensive coordinator Greg Roman said it’s an area Kaepernick is looking to improve in camp.

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Offensive play of the day: Michael Crabtree made a one-handed grab of a Blaine Gabbert pass on a crossing route during 11-on-11 action. Crabtree looked real fast, real good today.

Defensive play of the day:Tramaine Brock, perhaps overshadowed in camp by Chris Culliver‘s return and Jimmie Ward‘s debut, made a couple nice plays. The nicest was his interception of a Kory Faulkner pass intended for Stevie Johnson. Seven plays later, Brock knocked away a Josh Johnson pass to Devon Wylie.

Contact debuts: It was fun to focus in on defensive linemen Tank Carradine and Quinton Dial in their first full-contact camp practice. Carradine (knee) and Dial (toe) spent their rookies years rehabbing instead of playing, and they are a pair of big, strong fellas. Carradine often matched up well against Carter Bykowski, Jonathan Martin and Adam Snyder. Dial got a little too aggressive when he collided at the line of scrimmage with Carlos Hyde, who had reversed course before turning his back to cushion to the blow from Dial.

40-yard dash, er, ring toss: Kaepernick and the quarterbacks — plus cameos from Jim Harbaugh and Bruce Ellington — took part in a fun drill where they tried lobbing 40-yard passes into an elevated ring (think of a 3-foot wide butterfly net that’s on a 6-foot pole). No one made it through the hoop. Kory Faulkner came closest by hitting the rim. Ellington’s lone toss found the net but didn’t go through the hole. McLeod Bethel-Thompson twice hit the target’s base, and Kaepernick did that once. Kaepernick’s competitive streak really shows up in these side competitions, and he launched a final pass as everyone hurried off to the next drill. As for Harbaugh’s toss, he got into the mix late and his lone attempt was quite respectable, falling only a couple feet short of the target.

Return men: So LaMichael James looks far and away the leading candidate as a return specialist. I wouldn’t have thought that after he muffed a punt in the NFC Championship loss six months ago. Others auditioning are Perrish Cox, Wylie and Patton, the latter of whom muffed three consecutive punts by Colton Schmidt. Patton intentionally kicked the ball in disgust after his third straight botch.

Health watch: Wide receiver Jon Baldwin seemed to show discomfort in his left knee but returned to drills. … Bruce Ellington was activated Friday to take part in the morning walkthrough and other team activities, Trent Baalke said. … Defensive tackle Justin Smith and right tackle Anthony Davis continue to rehab from their offseason shoulder surgeries.